Israel expands raids near Gaza City
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-04 09:42

Israel expanded its military offensive in northern Gaza with an air strike early on Monday on a militant stronghold that seriously wounded a senior Hamas leader and another activist, witnesses and medics said.

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Hamas militant Khaled Amreet, who was killed in an Israel missile strike Saturday, during his funeral in Gaza City, Sunday Oct. 3, 2004. Israel's premier warned that his army's largest operation in Gaza in four years would expand, after troops left dozens of dead and rows of houses destroyed, aiming at stopping Palestinian rocket attacks on border towns. [AP]

The raid on Shijaia, east of Gaza City, came shortly after Israel's military chief warned that an incursion in which 55 Palestinians and three Israelis have died could last for weeks or "as long as necessary" to halt rocket attacks against Israel.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Israel to halt its incursions in Gaza, "which have led to the deaths of scores of Palestinians, among them many civilians, including children."

Annan also called on Palestinian leaders to help curtail rocket attacks, saying in a statement he "reminds both sides to this conflict that they have a legal obligation to protect all civilians."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, pursuing one of Israel's bloodiest operations in four years of conflict, needs to show he can stop rocket strikes that killed two Israeli toddlers last Wednesday to counter rightists who charge his plan to quit Gaza by next year will encourage more attacks.

Sharon vowed on Sunday he would expand a buffer zone in northern Gaza that the troops began carving out last Thursday to protect Israeli towns from rocket attacks.

As the assault entered its fifth day, about a dozen Israeli tanks pushed into the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza, hours after 200 other armored vehicles headed into the teeming Jabalya refugee camp.

Witnesses reported bursts of gunfire between soldiers and militants in Beit Hanoun, but there were no reports of casualties.

Just after midnight, an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at two members of Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, as they stood near a mosque in Shijaia, wounding them both seriously.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters cried for revenge against Israel as they took to the bloodstained pavement. Witnesses said the missiles were fired from pilotless drone aircraft, which Israel generally uses for surveillance purposes.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the raid.

Of the 55 Palestinians killed in the latest raid, 34 of them were militants. The Israelis killed include two soldiers and a woman jogger.

"NOT DAYS, BUT WEEKS"

Israel's military chief Moshe Yaalon told reporters while visiting troops in Gaza on Sunday the raid had been "successful," and Israel had hit seven gangs of militants involved in firing Qassam rockets.

"We will continue this operation for as long as necessary," to prevent rocket attacks, he said. "The forces are prepared to carry out this operation not in terms of days, but weeks."

Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, suggested the militants might be ready to reconsider firing rockets at Israel, telling reporters they "would seriously study their methods" if Israel halted all military action in Gaza.

But other militants were determined to appear to be driving Israel out of Gaza, given Sharon's plan to pull soldiers and settlers out of the land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

"The Qassam rockets will not stop as long as the occupation exists," Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas, told a rally of 4,000 in Gaza City late on Sunday.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Foreigners enjoy living, travelling in China         Beijing calls on G7 to help poor countries         China takes measures to control HIV/AIDS         Mainland consumers lift HK retail sales         Singapore issues stern warning to Taiwan         Bird flu kills nine-year-old Thai girl	Yudhoyono wins Indonesia election       Bird flu kills nine-year-old Thai girl       Samarra victory encourages Iraqi forces       US election: Democrats fear 'October surprise'       Israel expands raids near Gaza City       Rice defends comments on Iraq nuke threat